No Spurs No?

Signs are popping up on the city’s East Side urging a no vote on Proposition 3.

If you’re drawing a blank on that one, it’s probably because the campaign to pass the venue tax has spent all its firepower urging a yes vote for all four proposals, never differentiating between the four.

Prop. 3, of course, is the “community arenas” plan, which would spend $15 million on the rodeo grounds, $10 million on the Freeman Coliseum and $75 million on the AT&T Center.

That last “investment” really chaps David Arevalo, a long-time East Side activist who sat on the amateur sports committee and believes the other three proposals are worthy of voter support. Arevalo says the East Side was promised economic development with the now-AT&T Center, and got bupkis instead.

It also irritates him that the Spurs, who are driving the demand for the $75 million, is nowhere to be found in the campaign, which instead emphasizes the benefits to the Stock Show & Rodeo.

“We know what they’re asking, and the answer is no,” he said.

The signs caught the eye of KTSA’s Trey Ware, so he had Arevalo on his show this morning to find out who is bankrolling the “No Spurs No” campaign.

Arevalo was coy at first, but he finally admitted that he was the organization.

And there really hasn’t been much to bankroll: Instead of buying new signs, Arevalo told me (he didn’t mention this on the air, according to Ware) that he simply picked up old campaign signs from the last election, turned them over and silkscreened the new message on the backs.

Voila: An organized opposition campaign on a shoe-string budget.

And while Arevalo may be largely going it alone, Ware said at least one caller wanted to know where he could donate to the No Spurs No campaign.